Government-run healthcare has failed from ObamaCare to Medicaid to the VA hospital

The verdict is in. Americans want full repeal of ObamaCare. We have seen the future of government-run healthcare. It is a VA hospital where even our nation’s heroes learn the hard way that healthcare delayed is healthcare denied. This is the future of ObamaCare and we must repeal every single word of it.

With more primary victories by strong conservatives, such as Ben Sasse in Nebraska, we might actually be able to achieve it. Ben Sasse gave an articulate voice to the millions who want to see full repeal of ObamaCare become a reality. With a few more wins this election cycle, full repeal will finally be within our grasp.

ObamaCare has already been an undeniable disaster. Universal care fell flat. Insurance premiums exploded. Millions lost their policies. Even the website crashed. The president’s disastrous law did, however, have one unintentional achievement: ObamaCare has taught Americans that a government-centered healthcare system is the wrong approach.

The government subversion of healthcare has been decades in the making and began long before ObamaCare, but the president’s train wreck is the final nail in the coffin of the failed idea that the government should control your healthcare. ObamaCare should not be reworked and rewritten; it should be repealed and replaced.

But replaced with what? It’s not enough to just complain about ObamaCare. Republicans desperately need a new generation of leaders who will provide positive, conservative solutions. That’s why I authored my healthcare plan: PatientCare.

Americans deserve a healthcare system that cares more about patients than politicians. The cornerstones of a patient-centered system are compassion and efficiency. Compassion is achieved when patients and doctors are empowered to choose what treatments are best. And efficiency is achieved with the powerful engine of market-based competition.

This patient-centered, market-driven healthcare system worthy of a 21st-century America, that I call PatientCare, looks like this:

Portability. Current attempts at introducing portability into employer-owned insurance are inherently unworkable. Insurance that is personal, or owned individually, however is portable by its very nature. As Americans change jobs, their insurance is their own and they simply take it with them.

Health Savings Accounts. HSAs save money and save lives. By allowing patients to save their own money in a tax-free account, patients can be assured that funds are available when needed as they are naturally incentivized to avoid wasteful spending.

Medicare Modernization. An insolvent Medicare amounts to a cruel promise that cannot be kept. Respecting our senior citizens begins with empowering them to choose for themselves what healthcare policies meet their unique needs. They should be free to enroll in traditional Medicare or in innovative alternatives like Medicare Advantage. Expanded options encourage competition.

Eliminate government monopolies. Artificial state boundaries are created when states erect insurance mandates and licensing requirements. The states should immediately institute reciprocity of insurance and licensing so that the state boundary barriers to competition are eliminated.

End frivolous lawsuits. The president avoided tort reform despite the demonstrable evidence that it contains costs and increases access to healthcare, even in underserved areas. Patients should be protected, not just from bad doctors but also from bad lawyers whose frivolous lawsuits drive up the costs for everyone.

Help the needy. On a moral basis, we must take care of all Americans who truly cannot care for themselves. We’re failing and it’s not just the VA. Medicaid has devolved into a second-class system with worse medical outcomes than private insurance and sometimes, as unlikely as this sounds, worse outcomes than having no insurance at all. We should unleash the “laboratories of democracy” by block-granting Medicaid to the states. This approach proved successful in the 1990s with welfare-to-work reforms.

These reforms are the foundation of a system that cares more about patients than politicians. As ObamaCare continues to unravel, more and more Americans continue to recognize that a government-centered approach is unworkable and unwise. The challenge is to develop a patient-centered healthcare system whose cornerstones are compassion and efficiency.

It’s time that we end this failed era of government-run healthcare in America. It’s time that we put patients first. It’s time that we elect a new generation of bold, conservative leaders who will fight for the full repeal of ObamaCare and the adoption of a 21st-century healthcare system worthy of America: PatientCare.

Dr. Milton Wolf is a constitutional conservative Republican running for the U.S. Senate in Kansas. He is challenging Senator Pat Roberts who has been in Washington for 47 years. To learn more visit www.miltonwolf.com.